


Memories

by PinchServerTadashi



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, memories and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 15:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2656595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinchServerTadashi/pseuds/PinchServerTadashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru remembers a lot of things about Rin, some of the things are good and others are bad, but each an every one is important to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories

_Rinharu week, day 3, reunions_

Haru could remember the first time Rn had come back from Australia, that one winter day. He hadn’t been expecting to see his old friend on the other side of the train tracks, and he hadn’t expected that solemn expression. He remembered how Rin had challenged him to another race, and the feeling of utter joy that he could race with the other boy again. He remembered how he expected to see the fire in the other boy’s eyes as he had once seen, and he remembered the way his heart and soul plummeted to see tears. 

“ _I quit”_  The words reverberated inside Haru, and he remembered with bitter regret the guilt that swarmed his mind like a plague.

Haru remembered his very thoughts that day when he got home,  _I don’t want to swim if Rin isn’t there_

He remembered the years he had spent wondering what Rin was doing, if he had been serious, if he had actually quit. He remembered how the once exhilarating feeling of a race began to make his stomach turn, how he had thought- no, he knew Rin had quit and it was all Haru’s fault. 

But then old friends joined Makoto and him, along with new ones (who couldn’t even stay afloat) How the weight on his chest lightened just the slightest bit.

He remembered seeing Rin again, grown like Haru was (taller too). He remembered with crystalline clarity how vicious Rin’s eyes were. They weren’t warm or happy as they had once been, they were cold. Colder than the winter were they raced, colder than the feeling of guilt that had spread to Haru’s very core.

But he had started racing again. Never a relay, never again, not without Rin. Being without Rin in such an event would forsake the silent oath Haru had made to himself, it would crack the barriers he had formed around himself.

He remembered when that glint in Rin’s eyes returned as well. How Rei had managed to fix nearly everything, and how he stepped out to repair the broken friendship. He remembered how Rin was crying, but this time he knew the words wouldn’t be “I quit”

And now, he waited at the airport, a sign held up, “Welcome Home, Rin” In bold red letters.

When He saw Rin running closer, his baggage rolling behind him, he knew he would remember this as well. So when Rin jumped on him (literally) and almost knocked him over, Haru pressed a small kiss to the top of the taller boy’s head. 

He would make sure to remember this, just as he had remembered everything else about Rin.


End file.
